Our missionary Eric Byrd

We have had a whirl wind of a month. Even in a start up church it’s busy. Our Christmas banquet went great. Bro. Ed Chambliss from Mikado Baptist spoke. We were able to pull it off at no cost to the church. Our first Christmas cantata was fantastic and our choir did a great job. We will be baptizing a family of three hopefully in January. We were supposed to baptize in December but the husband had a gall bladder attack.

The bad news for our church is that we have three families moving. I know that each of you experience this yourselves at times. It will be tough but I know the Lord can help us over come.

We have one young couple visiting with us plus another family from the next county. If all goes well, a couple that has left a Methodist Church in the county and tried the Southern Baptist will be visiting with us also. They said the Southern Baptist was going the way of the Methodist, “liberal”. The first question asked is what Bible version we use. You see, they use the KJV! Praise the Lord! They also asked about our music and whether we were Pentecostal. We had all the right answers. Please pray for us and these that God may lead them our way.

We had a true answer to prayer this past week. I was unable to take my full pay check due to low tithes (I don’t like 5 Sunday months). Well, the Lord blessed and by this past Sunday night the church was able to give this weeks as well as the rest of last weeks checks. I learned from my pastor to pay the bills and keep a good testimony first and let God take care of me. God always supplies my needs! I am now in the process of looking for a job in order to take some of the financial burden off the church.

Prayer requests: I will be sending a letter out for more support for another year. My cousin is in the church pioneering program at Crown and he shared that the average church plant needs two years. We also have another building on the property. We are unable to make use of it at this time due to lack of funds to fix it up. We are in need of a drop ceiling, paneling and the installation of an air unit that was donated to us. We prayed for 6 weeks and the Lord convinced the owner of the building to foot the bill to partially pave the parking lot and one of our members did some trading with the paver to do a little more. We are also trying to get some tracts with our name and address on them. I have challenged our folks to give out no less than 25,000 this year. We are looking to be a strong witness in the county and middle Georgia.

If you or someone you know would be interested in supporting us, please let me know. We have made it longer than any other Independent Baptist Church plant in this county. We are the third Independent Baptist Church in the last ten years to come into this county. None of the previous made it more than six months. We are here for “such a time as this”. Please pray for us and consider helping us. This county needs Philadelphia Baptist. If not Philadelphia Baptist, then who?
Our theme this year is “Not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”! We are not ashamed. When we pass out tracts, we still have people asking what it is we are handing them. Many have never been given a tract until we got here. It is a shame that the Gospel has not been freely given out in Monroe County. How many have perished and never heard? We have churches on every corner but 90% only give out a social gospel. Once again, Monroe County needs us because they need the Lord!

Finally, if you know of someone moving to our county please tell them about us. I am also looking to find a church in the city of Jasper, Georgia for one of my families that is moving. I just baptized the husband and oldest son. If you know of a good Independent Baptist Church in that area, please let me know.

In Christ
Eric Byrd
Pastor

Romans 1:16 16For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.